About twenty minutes into Enchanted, my balls fell off and I was able to enjoy it – more or less – as its intended audience: pre-pubescent girls. It starts with a cartoon of such sweetness that it made me feel an urge to brush my teeth.… Read the rest
Who is Michael Clayton? Several characters in the movie are wondering about that, not least of all Michael Clayton himself. What he is, job description-wise in any case, is a ‘fixer’. As a cross between an investigator and a lawyer, he tries to find information and make arrangements to help the cliënts of the law firm he works for.… Read the rest
Gosh, does Beowulf ever love the sound of his own name. If a drinking game was based on this movie – a sip for every time the name is mentioned – it would end in first aid with a case of alcohol poisoning.… Read the rest
Thanks to a bout of flue I recently watched all of the first season of Ugly Betty as a marathon. This is the USA version of a concept that has been travelling the globe in many local forms. It was called ‘Lotte’ in the Netherlands and originally started out as ‘Yo soy Betty, la Fea’ (I am Betty, the Ugly One), a Columbian ‘telenovella’.… Read the rest
A boy promises his undeserving sweetheart a piece from a fallen star and crosses a wall to find it, landing himself in a fantasy land with flying pirates, evil witches and a dying monarch. When the fallen star turns out to be a girl, hormonal imbalances ensue.… Read the rest
*contains mild spoilers*
After two seasons, my love affair with Prison Break is over. What went wrong? *Wavy flashback effect* I came on board to this series rather late. I saw season one after it had already aired, in a couple of big chunks.… Read the rest
Eureka has just been renewed for a third season by the SciFi Channel. The series once badly titled ‘A Town Called Eureka‘ seems to be hitting its stride. The set-up: a U.S. Marshal (Colin Ferguson) gets stranded with his ‘delinquent’ daughter in a town with an unusual amount of geniuses.… Read the rest
I am not sure what it is about animated films that gets me involved in the story so easily. Even corny sentiment easily chokes me up in this form. Maybe the suspension of disbelief makes it easier to get lost in the narrative or maybe it’s just the simple stories and often childlike cast with their usually big, teary eyes (as parodied by the cat in Shrek 2).… Read the rest
Contains only mild spoilers
I had to race through this book to avoid one of my colleagues from the bookstore blurting out a spoiler before I could get to the end. I succeeded, and what a ride it was. Of course, I will not be spoiling the end for anybody here either, trying to balance being vague and yet specific.… Read the rest
Yet another third entry into a franchise this year. Shrek learns about responsibility and fatherhood and we learn through him. Bless. I must admit I love the world of Shrek; the random assortment of characters from all sorts of fairytales and legends being ripped off, thrown together and used for cheap laughs.… Read the rest
